Reasons TVC, The Nation others complied with the Buhari regime’s Twitter ban
Different Nigerian media houses have complied with the banning of Twitter indefinitely put in place by the federal government of Nigeria; among them are Television Continental (TVC) and The Nation owned by the APC national leader Bola Tinubu, an ally of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Different Nigerian media houses have complied with the banning of Twitter indefinitely put in place by the federal government of Nigeria; among them are Television Continental (TVC) and The Nation owned by the APC national leader Bola Tinubu, an ally of President Muhammadu Buhari.
These media houses have halted their activities on Twitter in compliance with Mr. Buhari’s regime’s suspension of the microblogging platform in Nigeria.
The suspension came after Twitter and Facebook deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘genocidal’ post threatening recalcitrant Igbo youths.
You will recall that on June 4, information minister Lai Mohammed announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter in Nigeria on the ground that it was used to spread false information and “activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
Therefore, RNN observed that Tinubu, who many Nigerians expect to vie for president in 2023, a formidable ally of the incumbent, has kept mum on the flagrant violation of freedom of expression by the regime.
Although TVC (TV station) and The Nation (newspaper) did not immediately halt their activities on the platform, like the latter, in a June 5 tweet, asked Nigerians where they tweeted from after many started to use VPN to bypass the ban we believed there must have been pressurized by the elite owner.
Where are you tweeting from?#TwitterBan
— The Nation Nigeria (@TheNationNews) June 5, 2021
Similarly, Channels TV, Africa Independent Television (AIT), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) have also halted their activities on Twitter. As of the time of writing this observation, The Punch Newspaper, SaharaReporters, and other online blogs have not halted their Twitter activities.
Conversely, a report published by Daily Beast alleged that Mr. Buhari, angered by the removal of his post on Facebook, had the intention of suspending the platform, but his aides advised against it.
“He was furious and wanted to deal with both Twitter and Facebook. The action (the social media companies) took was embarrassing to the president,” the media outlet quoted the official in the president’s office to have said.
